Sunday, May 9, 2010

Hot Docs: 12 Views on Vermeer


Have always loved this hot docs logo.
Anybody know who designed it? So great.



One of the 12 artists inspired by Vermeer: Photographer Steve Mccurry
(The guy who shot the famous Afghan girl photo)

Post film:
Brunch and going over my notes from my trusty journal

Saw the documentary 12 Views on Vermeer at Hot Docs today. Was fantastic - ranking up there with Gary Huswit's Helvetica - which for me is saying a lot.
I loved that the director Hans Pool took a Vermeerish approach to his filmmaking. Instead of staging perfect scenes he filmed the interviewees while they went about ordinary quiet activities in their natural surroundings like doing dishes or opening their email. He even included the cleaning staff vacuuming around the Vermeers at the MET. Cute.
The film is made up of interviews with 12 different artists, writers and photographers whose lives and work have been touched by the 17th Century painter.
I thought the best commentator on the artist was Alain de Botton, (one of my favourite writers) who explained that Vermeer's biggest appeal is his sense of peacefulness. He then offered that it is then no wonder that people are endlessly attracted to his pieces because "We fall in love with something that we don't have enough of in our life".
So true.

1 comment:

Miss Crowland said...

Sounds like a really good one.